Man City League Cup 1-1 - lost 4-3 on pens

[Guest MattP]

4 minutes ago, Koke said:

The overreaction over this is a bit embarrassing. You'd think Puel played the U23s. We had numerous first teamers playing for well over an hour and we were still not good. Also, how was Puel to know Pep would play loads of kids?.Evem with Mahrez, Gray and Vardy on the pitch for an hour Man City were still the better team. We took them to pens when we didn't deserve to..

With most of our first team players on we won the match 1-0.

[HighPeakFox]

Also, who is to say we'd have pulled BCFC out of the bag? The what iffing is epic.

[Basingstoke Fox]

Absolutely fuming. Even more so than when I saw the team sheet yesterday evening.

 

I had a ticket but thankfully couldn't make it due to work commitments. I say thankfully because if I had to drive back for 2-2.5 hours after that last night, getting minimal sleep before heading into work again this morning after the half arsed effort from the club I would've been seething. Had we played our strongest 11 and still come up short, fair enough I would never get on the teams back if they try their best and simply aren't good enough. That may well have still happened but you have to at least try, give it a real go.

 

I heard and saw many people last night saying they were proud of the effort the team put in. I can't agree, that team selection shows that we didn't take it seriously enough as a club and I could never be proud of that half arsed approach as a club overall.

 

Football is about winning trophies. Perhaps we'll be a little more prepared for the upcoming league fixtures might now finish a little higher in the league (I'm not convinced it'll make much difference anyway) but who honestly cares? Every year we get excuses for not taking the domestic cups seriously;  we need to focus on achieving promotion, avoiding relegation or even winning the league. Taking this approach is understandable at those times but this season there was literally no reason not to put our full strength side out last night. We've thrown away a real shot of getting to a cup final this season and once you're there, who knows what could happen?

 

This is the reality of the money oriented world we follow football in these days. Clubs would rather focus on trying to finish one or two places higher in the league for a few extra quid than have the prestige of winning actual trophies.

[Dan LCFC]

22 minutes ago, Koke said:

The overreaction over this is a bit embarrassing. You'd think Puel played the U23s. We had numerous first teamers playing for well over an hour and we were still not good. Also, how was Puel to know Pep would play loads of kids?.Evem with Mahrez, Gray and Vardy on the pitch for an hour Man City were still the better team. We took them to pens when we didn't deserve to..

It's totally different bringing them on when we're losing rather than starting them. We could've won that last night. Took us way too long to really attack them in the game.

[Dan LCFC]

19 minutes ago, HighPeakFox said:

Also, who is to say we'd have pulled BCFC out of the bag? The what iffing is epic.

If they draw the balls out based on the fixture number we'd have got them, if they did it on alphabetical order we'd have got them.

 

We fvcked up I'm afraid. We've missed some good opportunities at cup runs but this is the worst in a long time. Best chance we'll have of making a final in years.

[adam]

Well that has pissed me off even more. What a wasted opportunity. What's the point in football if you don't wanna win competitions. Fuming 

[Weller in Tights]

Should've played our strongest team from the start. End of story.

 

if we want European football we need to win a domestic cup.

 

I do not want to be a boring mid-table team that purely focuses on being mid table.

 

I would prefer going back to yo-yoing between leagues. At least then we would get rid of the glory supporters that are clogging up the ground and contributing nothing to the Atmosphere at games.

 

While I'm on a rant.

 

Kingy, thanks for the service over the last 10 years or so. But he should never get into the first 11 again, never.

 

Allbrighton and Fuchs, thanks for the great season of 2015-16 but your time is up.

 

Big Wes Morgan will go down as a true legend, but his position in the team is now seriously up for review.

[jamfox]

49 minutes ago, RumbleFox said:

I am loathe to even respond as we are both better than this but...

 

a:  Please show me, using quotations, where I said we had "pretty much" our best team out against Man City.  Against Palace I stated this but I can;t see the bit where I said we did against Man City?

 

b: I am massively disappointed too, it fvcking hurts right in the gut every time we lose, but I was more bothered by the reaction on here, people are mental.  If you just stumbled upon this forum you'd think there was an upper age limit of about 14 and a half.  Surely people can be disappointed without turning into mongspazzers?  (Not pointing a finger at you, just deeply, deeply depressed by the way a lot of our fans react)

 

c:  I am a sad, lonely individual who uses forums to make myself feel less useless.  I like to disagree with the negative because in real life I am such a massive loser, with such a tiny, tiny nob, that I get very little joy.

 

d:  I was bored and couldn't sleep.

 

f: I don't know my alphabet.

 

g: How are you?

 

X

" mongspazzers? "   In sure it's not a politically correct word , but its a piss funny one

[Kitchandro]

Frankly last night could be a sackable offence on it's own.

 

We should be playing Bristol City in the semi-finals of the league cup but, and let's not pretend anything different, the manager wasn't interested.

 

Had we started with our regular starting 11 and employed some remotely decent tactics (which admittedly we didn't do against Palace) we'd have almost certainly beaten them. They weren't much good - all we needed was a bit of tempo and positivity. Bringing on Vardy, Mahrez and Gray might have helped....but it's all too little, too late - the rhythm of the game and momentum was already against us. You can't just switch it on and off like a light switch.

 

Besides, chucking players on doesn't change the fact that we approached the game very negatively. We seem to have abandoned pressing in all matches, which there is no excuse for as the merits of it cannot be called into question with a side like ours. We started deep with a pedestrian midfield and an isolated, out of form striker and had no ideas at all how we were going to score a goal in the match. But those things aren't even the point really.

 

It's not enough to say Puel was unlucky, or wrong, or even incredibly stupid. He simply did not respect this club's fans, the majority of which (as the polls on this site indicated) wanted to see us do our very best to win a trophy. And that is the point. That is not acceptable.

 

If it wasn't so early in his reign he'd be rightly crucified by 99% of this forum. As it is, excuses run high at this stage.

 

That starting line-up was disgusting and we very, very much deserved to lose whichever way you look at it.

Edited 21 December 2017 by Kitchandro

[bovril]

1 hour ago, HighPeakFox said:

Also, who is to say we'd have pulled BCFC out of the bag? The what iffing is epic.

Indeed. And who's to say Bristol would have won if we had? 

Edited 21 December 2017 by bovril

[Callabinho]

1 hour ago, Weller in Tights said:

Should've played our strongest team from the start. End of story.

 

if we want European football we need to win a domestic cup.

 

I do not want to be a boring mid-table team that purely focuses on being mid table.

 

I would prefer going back to yo-yoing between leagues. At least then we would get rid of the glory supporters that are clogging up the ground and contributing nothing to the Atmosphere at games.

 

While I'm on a rant.

 

Kingy, thanks for the service over the last 10 years or so. But he should never get into the first 11 again, never.

 

Allbrighton and Fuchs, thanks for the great season of 2015-16 but your time is up.

 

Big Wes Morgan will go down as a true legend, but his position in the team is now seriously up for review.

Fuchs was dreadful, and Albrighton pisses me off.... loads of people like him and that one cross he puts in, but really he lacks consistent quality and we need better....

 

Puel likes youth, and I think he likes his own blueprint... so I fully expect a busy summer.... and hopefully a bit more quality coming in! But we have some serious shit in our squad.....

[Redouane]

2 hours ago, Weller in Tights said:

Should've played our strongest team from the start. End of story.

 

if we want European football we need to win a domestic cup.

 

I do not want to be a boring mid-table team that purely focuses on being mid table.

 

I would prefer going back to yo-yoing between leagues. At least then we would get rid of the glory supporters that are clogging up the ground and contributing nothing to the Atmosphere at games.

 

While I'm on a rant.

 

Kingy, thanks for the service over the last 10 years or so. But he should never get into the first 11 again, never.

 

Allbrighton and Fuchs, thanks for the great season of 2015-16 but your time is up.

 

Big Wes Morgan will go down as a true legend, but his position in the team is now seriously up for review.

Wait what? Sacrificing the keague games in the extremely busy month of December for the Carabao Cup is NOT how you get the European football. I'd rather we focus on the prem than this crappy cup. With a fully fit squad, I don't see why can't hope for a top5 finish. 

[mozartfox]

4 hours ago, adam said:

Well that has pissed me off even more. What a wasted opportunity. What's the point in football if you don't wanna win competitions. Fuming 

Do not worry Puel has the Checkatrade Trophy firmly in his sights.

[Carl the Llama]

At least with 3 of the 4 semi final teams likely to be in European spots anyway there's a good chance 6th will become a European position which improves our chances of qualifying via the league.

[Bats8711]

this board's changed a lot in a week

[NotTheMarketLeader]

7 hours ago, Basingstoke Fox said:

Absolutely fuming. Even more so than when I saw the team sheet yesterday evening.

 

I had a ticket but thankfully couldn't make it due to work commitments. I say thankfully because if I had to drive back for 2-2.5 hours after that last night, getting minimal sleep before heading into work again this morning after the half arsed effort from the club I would've been seething. Had we played our strongest 11 and still come up short, fair enough I would never get on the teams back if they try their best and simply aren't good enough. That may well have still happened but you have to at least try, give it a real go.

 

I heard and saw many people last night saying they were proud of the effort the team put in. I can't agree, that team selection shows that we didn't take it seriously enough as a club and I could never be proud of that half arsed approach as a club overall.

 

Football is about winning trophies. Perhaps we'll be a little more prepared for the upcoming league fixtures might now finish a little higher in the league (I'm not convinced it'll make much difference anyway) but who honestly cares? Every year we get excuses for not taking the domestic cups seriously;  we need to focus on achieving promotion, avoiding relegation or even winning the league. Taking this approach is understandable at those times but this season there was literally no reason not to put our full strength side out last night. We've thrown away a real shot of getting to a cup final this season and once you're there, who knows what could happen?

 

This is the reality of the money oriented world we follow football in these days. Clubs would rather focus on trying to finish one or two places higher in the league for a few extra quid than have the prestige of winning actual trophies.

Correct in it’s entirety.

 

Its concerning that the manager  believed it was more important to ‘rotate’ players ahead of WINNING A FOOTBALL MATCH to get through to a Cup Semi-Final where we would be playing Bristol City.

 

I too am beginning to despair with modern football; the whole affair goes against the essence of football as a sport.

 

[RumbleFox]

7 hours ago, Kitchandro said:

Frankly last night could be a sackable offence on it's own.

 

We should be playing Bristol City in the semi-finals of the league cup but, and let's not pretend anything different, the manager wasn't interested.

 

Had we started with our regular starting 11 and employed some remotely decent tactics (which admittedly we didn't do against Palace) we'd have almost certainly beaten them. They weren't much good - all we needed was a bit of tempo and positivity. Bringing on Vardy, Mahrez and Gray might have helped....but it's all too little, too late - the rhythm of the game and momentum was already against us. You can't just switch it on and off like a light switch.

 

Besides, chucking players on doesn't change the fact that we approached the game very negatively. We seem to have abandoned pressing in all matches, which there is no excuse for as the merits of it cannot be called into question with a side like ours. We started deep with a pedestrian midfield and an isolated, out of form striker and had no ideas at all how we were going to score a goal in the match. But those things aren't even the point really.

 

It's not enough to say Puel was unlucky, or wrong, or even incredibly stupid. He simply did not respect this club's fans, the majority of which (as the polls on this site indicated) wanted to see us do our very best to win a trophy. And that is the point. That is not acceptable.

 

If it wasn't so early in his reign he'd be rightly crucified by 99% of this forum. As it is, excuses run high at this stage.

 

That starting line-up was disgusting and we very, very much deserved to lose whichever way you look at it.

Firstly, I understand your frustration and admit to being p1ssed off that we lost.  And in general you write well and at least attempt to present facts unlike some people on here.

 

I do think you undo your own argument at times though.  Sackable?  Come on.  By that reckoning every single Premier League (and a lot of Championship) managers need to be sacked as pretty much everyone puts out weakened teams.  I wish they didn't, and I wish we didn't but it does lead me to think that pressure on managers to stay up/get promoted from the board is such that they do now prioritise the league over the  league cup.  It's sad, and I wish it wasn't the case but I would say it was more of a general shift than Puel's fault and he needs to be sacked.

 

Also, the team was not "disgusting".  It was weakened but language like that just makes us look silly.  It had 6 first team players in it and was far "stronger" than Man City's line up.  We also have more games over a shorter period than any other club in the Premier League at the moment and last time we put our "strongest" team out we got thrashed by Palace.

 

Thirdly, you do your own argument down because right from the start you have slagged him off, using every opportunity to have a wee dig.  Can I ask what you have against him?  I am annoyed about the other night but in general our results have been good and our football has been better to watch than for a long, long time.  In a similar manner, I do my own argument down because I am always positive and rarely criticise the team.  I am aware of that but, on reflection, I would rather being constantly defending the team even if at times I go too far than constantly having a wee dig.

 

Anyway, it's only a game eh?

 

 

[norwichfox]

Just trying to picture the scale of meltdown if it had been us losing to Bristol City last night....massive. It's good that we managed to avoid that banana skin in the semis.....

Edited 21 December 2017 by norwichfox

[Guest Chocolate Teapot]

The team selection for Tuesday was quite frankly ridiculous.

 

Puel has made an excellent start but is having a terrible week.

[Jonezy]

The overreaction is real around here...

[NotTheMarketLeader]

8 hours ago, Redouane said:

Wait what? Sacrificing the keague games in the extremely busy month of December for the Carabao Cup is NOT how you get the European football. I'd rather we focus on the prem than this crappy cup. With a fully fit squad, I don't see why can't hope for a top5 finish. 

No chance of top 5.

 

You didn’t see the Palace game or our defending all season so far I take it?

[Countryfox]

8 hours ago, Redouane said:

 I'd rather we focus on the prem than this crappy cup ...

 

I would have absolutely loved to be in the semis of this 'crappy cup' ..   abso fvckin lutely LOVED to have been in it ...    I'm still down and am fuming at what happened.   

[Countryfox]

3 minutes ago, NotTheMarketLeader said:

No chance of top 5.

 

You didn’t see the Palace game or our defending all season so far I take it?

 

Or top 6 ..  mid table, thats it ...    WASTED WASTED opportunity ...   and Christmas can fvck off too !!

[Redouane]

7 minutes ago, Countryfox said:

 

I would have absolutely loved to be in the semis of this 'crappy cup' ..   abso fvckin lutely LOVED to have been in it ...    I'm still down and am fuming at what happened.   

I dont think Puel or the chairmen think the same

[NotTheMarketLeader]

28 minutes ago, Abrasive fox said:

The team selection for Tuesday was quite frankly ridiculous.

 

Puel has made an excellent start but is having a terrible week.

It’s tantamount to ‘throwing’ a game.

 

I don’t understand this.

 

Surely the owners would want the opportunity to advertise their brand in a Wembley final that is broadcast around the world, even if they have no understanding or respect for ticket buying fans? 

Edited 21 December 2017 by NotTheMarketLeader